Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 2010 promoting local culture and sustainable initiatives through education and the integration of scientific ingenuity in Southwest Morocco. We operate North Africa's largest fog harvesting project, providing villages with access to potable water. Our Water School and Girls' E-Learning Programs build capacity in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Through our Ethnographic Field School, researchers and students engage with local communities in Agadir, Sidi Ifni, and the rural Aït Baamrane region for meaningful cross-cultural exchange.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

EYAs at COP22

Dar Si Hmad was proud to sponsor some of our Environmental Youth Ambassadors at COP22. Check out their blog for tales from their time networking with other climate activists, speaking to the media, and sharing our UNFCCC award-winning fog-harvesting technology with visitors to our booth!

The Conference of Parties (COP22) is
2016 rendez-vous of NGOs, activists, politicians and corporations to
engage in an open dialogue about potential solutions for climate change
effect on our planet.

In the Green Zone gathering civil society,
numerous open Agora spaces were displayed to be used by COP 22
participants as speaking points, in order to engage with a larger
audience outside booths. Each Agora space has specific themes, including
youth, gender, culture, academia & research, etc.As Environmental Youth Ambassadors, we
held two speaking events at the Youth Agora, to both showcase our work
to a larger audience, and get to know more about the audience’s
involvement in climate change resilience.

During the two hours of each Agora event, we started by screening an introductory video, explaining the concept of the Environmental Youth Ambassadors (EYA)
program and the general scope of work. We followed by an overview of
Dar Si Hmad ’s work regarding environmental education, and the
award-winning Fog Harvesting Project, leaving the audience to speculate about the nature of the fog project. We gathered their guesses before explaining the technology and science
behind it. We discussed Fog Project as an innovative example of
adaptation to water scarcity due to climate change in Southwest Morocco.

After receiving positive and admiring feedback about the fog project, we proceeded by projecting our main directed short film Being Part of the Nature
that highlights the first part of our program which includes Water
School and fog project visits, in addition to the media training we’ve
received at Dar Si Hmad. The following screening highlighted the rest of
our activities: Film & Ftour, Clean & Green, EYA Challenge, Walakin Campaign and WASH SOS Village,
that serve as an example of youth-led efforts to promote climate change
dialogue among the university students and youth of Southwest Morocco.

EYA Oumhani presenting our Clean & Green event

Speaking at the Youth Agora space
enabled us to emphasize on how critical it is to leverage journalism
skills and social media tools for the climate change resilience cause, a
point that was agreed upon by our audience of worldwide NGOs and
activists gathering for the same cause, at United Nations Climate Change
conference in Marrakech.

About Dar Si Hmad

Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture is an independent
nonprofit organization founded in 2010 operating in Agadir, Sidi Ifni,
and the rural Aït Baamrane region of Southwest Morocco.

Dar Si Hmad promotes and preserves local culture, history, and
heritage through a variety of education and livelihood projects. Our
programming builds the capacities of local people while respecting
natural resources and the environment.

Through our Ethnographic Field School and Research Support programs,
we share our educational and environmental projects with students and
researchers, creating a platform for cross-cultural and intellectual
exchange.